Bolivia, Venezuela in Energy Venture

[Judi Lynn]

Dec. 18, 2006, 4:53PM
Bolivia, Venezuela in Energy Venture

By VIVIAN SEQUERA Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

— BRASILIA, Brazil _ The leftist governments of Bolivia and Venezuela will form a jointly owned energy exploration and production company to tap Bolivia's vast reserves of natural gas, that country's hydrocarbons minister said Monday.

In a visit to Brazil's capital of Brasilia, Carlos Villegas told reporters that his country would join with Venezuela to invest about US$1 billion (euro760 million) to create a company that will presumably compete with foreign petroleum companies now extracting almost all of Bolivia's natural gas.

Bolivia's state-owned oil company, Yacimentos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, or YPFB, will own a 51 stake in the gas production firm and Venezuela's state-owned petroleum company will own the rest, Villegas said.
(snip)

YPFB and PDVSA will have the same ownership stake in that operation. Each company will invest amounts proportionate to their stakes in the two joint ventures, Villegas said.

Bolivian officials previously said they would cooperate with Venezuela on energy projects, but Villegas' comments were the most specific to date. YPFB has not functioned as a gas producer since Bolivia's petroleum industry was privatized a decade ago.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4410898.html

[aquart]

1. We are such idiots.